Peter's Journal

Little Pep Talk

**I was reading one of the Peter Parker: Spectacular Spider-Man comics and I wanted to write something similar to it.

Doctor Strange wanted me to try something for a spell he was practicing. Something about entering your own mind in a peaceful state. It's not the first time he's used me as a guinea pig for a magic trick.

"Alright, so where do I stand?" I ask.

Strange points to the area right in front of the huge emblem in the glass. He says, "This'll be the best location for the spell since it has a large open space."

Wong passes by and chuckles, "Spider-Man agreed to have a spell tested on him? He never says no everytime we ask."

"The only reason I agree is because I really don't have anything else better to do at the moment. Everyone's busy and the crime rate has been low," I admit.

As Strange conjures his spell, he says,"The spell I'm about to use is not really one I haven't used-"

"So why did you say you needed me to test it out?" I question.

Wong and Strange exchange looks and Strange responds, " I felt some conflict within you and we wanted to see how we could help."

"What-"

Suddenly everything goes white.

I find myself sitting in the middle of a large white space. There's nothing but water on the ground that barely surrounds my ankles. The water splashes as I walk around the area.

"Hey!" a voice calls out, "I've been trying to talk to you for years now!"

I know that voice. That's-

"Wow, you're not as I tall as I thought I would be," I hear the voice say.

I turn around and I see my younger self. Back from before I went into 6th grade.

I faintly smile as he nears himself towards me. "I nearly forgot about that part of who I used to be," I say. I could see it in his face... He was excited to speak with his future self. He wanted to know about the past he hasn't gone through yet.

"Are- Are you me? Am I you? Wait- Are you Dad's younger self?" He asked enthusiastically. I laugh and say, "I'm you, buddy." He smiles brightly. I could see it in his face that he didn't know where to start. What to ask.

"You want to sit down?"

"Sure."

*****

"What's it like for us in the future?"

I look at the floor. This kid is probably going to be disappointed... "It's...um...hard, to you the truth. I remember how I knew every scenario, every possible outcome, how I believed that I had predicted my life so accurately and realistically using what I knew...then, when I thought I never would hear this sentence, I was given this question: "You thought you were ready for life?" Something I never imagined I would hear because I thought I was able to maneuver through anything life threw at me."

He looked at me with a serious look. "Oh...ok. I get it," he responded.

"Yeah..."

"What about Mom and Dad? Do they still..."

"... fight? Yeah, they do."

"Is it that bad?"

As the conversation keeps going, it gets even more painful to talk about. But I can feel that I'm- he's not getting discouraged. He was most likely expecting this.